to be driven up the wall by my manager constantly going on about being hungry?

[pegweg]

My manager spends all day talking about how hungry she is. She eats normally. It is just this running commentary that never ends.

She will finish a call and immediately say that’s made her hungry. She will go round asking everyone if they’ve had their lunch. If I say no, she will keep telling them to have it.

She will have a meeting, come out of it and say it made her hungry. Rinse and repeat all day.

It is constant. Every meeting, every gap, every bit of small talk turns into her talking about being hungry. If I ask her about something, she will say that has made me hungry.

It is relentless and draining to listen to.

I have a colleague who is permanently ravenous, she's very slim, but eats constantly. When she was pregnant I used to keep extra snacks in my desk to throw to her. She is now breast feeding an equally hungry baby! Sometimes I notice her mood dropping after something particularly difficult at work, I offer her a biscuit and she perks right up. I like her a lot though so her hunger doesn't bother me other than that she can eat as much as she does and never gain weight.

I do wonder with my colleague whether it is genuine true hunger. People do not always recognise the signals correctly.

My husband has a stressful job and he 'tics' "I'm tired" constantly..... hes not tired....he's stressed

😂 I'm that colleague!!
I'm 16 weeks pregnant and tbh I've probably said I'm hungry soooooo many times in the last few weeks.

I'd hate to think the people I work with are posting about me.
Some people have eating disorders. Where food is a constant fixation. Some people over eat. Some under eat. But with the eating disorder (anorexia from my experience) from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep food is literally all I would think about.

Annoying yes, but just.. let it go? Ignore it?

I have worked with people who eat constantly. So much that you wonder what, if any, work is actually being done. Cereal, crisps, cake, sandwiches, occasionally bacon rolls, on repeat. On and on. I assumed they didn’t eat much at home at all. And that it was a procrastination or boredom thing.
Food years ago was not much of a thing at work. Some places had canteens. But nobody ate breakfast at their desk. Nor anything else except perhaps a chocolate bar. If that. You went to a staff room to eat your lunch. You didn’t eat it at your desk. Nor did people bring in cakes and cookies.
Now people eat breakfast at their desk, sometimes someone fetches bacon sandwiches from outside, if there is a canteen people go to it but also people now bring food down from it to their desk. Endless eating at the desk. And people bringing in more food. Toast, fruit. Crunch, crackle, rustle.
So the ‘ I’m starving’ comment is possibly a ‘ me being part of the team ‘ comment without realising how often she is saying it. Given that food has overtaken some workplaces.
Time to put it back a bit.

It's boring but harmless, surely.

Is she an ex smoker or a vaper, it sounds to me like she gets "hungry" when, if not at work she would have a smoke, ie. After a phone call / meeting etc.

I agree some people may have eating disorders. But maybe she is triggering someone in the team by constantly saying she is hungry multiple times a day.

Currently we are letting it go and ignoring but it is very tiresome. When she is not there, nobody mentions food and we all get on. If someone wants to eat then they do. We don't make big announcements about how every meeting and call makes us hungry.

I agree. People mostly didn't eat at their desk. We only a small kitchen at work and there is no space to eat separately so people eat at their desk which is fine but the running commentary on being so hungry is irritating. When gets through all the food she has brought from home then she goes out and buys it and eats it at her desk. It is noisy too.

She is neither of those. It would be better if she smoked. At least she would have to go outside!

We had a feeder at work & it was exhausting. She was food fixated & forced food on people even baking them things they mentioned they liked in passing - it wasn’t a nice oh I’ve brought in some homemade cookies or whatever once in a while but excessive.
Fortunately we weren’t in close proximity & she didn’t stay long but it was really draining & in this case really intrusive as she’d demand to know what you were eating, had you eaten yet, if you wanted hers or announce when we’d be eating when it wasn’t when individually people may have wanted to. She was also a manager so hard to assert yourself to - but we all did. I do see it might have been her way to look after & take care of us & maybe ingratiate herself with us - with treats etc but it was def more than is comfortable or appropriate.

Guess yours is simply food /hunger fixated too - no other explanation.

What kind of food is she eating? I wonder if you could suggest more 'filling' food? Although, possibly engaging in any conversation about food is just adding to her fixation.

I wonder if she is diabetic and her blood sugars are all over the place

Biscuits, croissants, chocolate bars, ready meals, sandwiches, pastries - quite carb heavy foods.

She has mentioned before that she doesn't really see me eating. I sometimes do one meal a day. She couldn't contemplate doing anything other than what she does now otherwise she gets hangry. She completely switches off when any idea of not eating for a significant amount of time is mentioned. Quite a few of the team do intermittent fasting. It horrifies her.

She is not diabetic but if she was constantly eating all day wouldn't help. She eats a lot of sweet heavy carby foods which is not the best choice for diabetics.

I would steer clear of food advisory as to what she should eat, shouldn’t eat in terms of dietary requirements. Or what sort of diets she should approve of.
That would be as intolerable as someone eating throughout the day.

@pegweg is your colleague overweight with all that food and grazing constantly throughout the day?

We don't advise her what to eat and what she should not eat. She will often ask us questions about what we eat etc. Make comments on our lunch. We don't ask her anything about food as she will just go on and on.

I try to. Its the patience strength wisdom thing.

No. She has normal BMI.

Maybe when she feels anxious she wants to eat? I've know women like these.

She must be feeling anxious all day then. Even a small non stressful phonecall makes her hungry.

She maybe the manager, so difficult to say something but her behaviour is inappropriate, especially as a manager.
I think you need to raise it with HR or another manager. (Possibly check company policy on these things.) You could do it as a concern for her wellbeing and whether she needs some advice/support.
If you take the subject matter away and she kept talking about a non work related subject (ie children, shopping, hobbies) you'd be in exactly the same position.
She needs to shut up and get on with her work and you all need to be able to concentrate on your work and manage your own eating habits!

Do you think it might be something she knows winds you up a bit?

I never respond or show that I am wound up.

She does it to everyone. Someone came into the office a bit later one day and the first thing she said to him was have you had your lunch?